Acroporidae is a family of small polyped stony corals in the phylum

Cnidaria Cnidaria ( ) is a phylum under kingdom Animalia containing over 11,000 species of aquatic invertebrates found both in fresh water, freshwater and marine environments (predominantly the latter), including jellyfish, hydroid (zoology), hydroids, ...

. The name is derived from the Greek ''"akron"'' meaning "summit" and refers to the presence of a

corallite A corallite is the skeletal cup, formed by an individual stony coral polyp, in which the polyp sits and into which it can retract. The cup is composed of aragonite, a crystalline form of calcium carbonate, and is secreted by the polyp. Corallit ...

at the tip of each branch of coral. They are commonly known as staghorn corals and are grown in aquaria by reef hobbyists.Quintessential Small Polyped Stony Corals, the Staghorns, Family Acroporidae
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Description

Staghorn corals are the dominant group of

reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral, or similar relatively stable material lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic component, abiotic (non-living) processes such as deposition (geol ...

builders. They come in many shapes and sizes and can be highly variable in colour and form, even within the same

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

. Most are either a branching variant or a wall/ table top variant shaped and some are encrusting (growing over rock structures). Their colours vary between browns, whites, pinks, blues, yellows, greens and purple, depending not only on species but also on the growing conditions. Identification is difficult and requires close examination of the corallites and a biochemical and genetic analysis. There is a corallite at the tip of each branch and, with the exception of '' Astreopora'', these are small with up to twelve

septa SEPTA, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, is a regional public transportation authority that operates bus, rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolleybus services for nearly four million people througho ...

in two cycles.

Distribution

''Anacropora'', ''Astreopora'' and ''Montipora'' are found in the Indian and Pacific Ocean. ''Acropora'' is cosmopolitan and is both common and conspicuous, usually being dominant in Indo-Pacific reefs. ''Enigmopora'' is represented by a single new species, '' Enigmopora darveliensis'', found in Malaysia and the Philippines.

Biology

Staghorn corals are

hermaphrodite A hermaphrodite () is a sexually reproducing organism that produces both male and female gametes. Animal species in which individuals are either male or female are gonochoric, which is the opposite of hermaphroditic. The individuals of many ...

s. They are mostly broadcast-spawners and some species have been involved in annual synchronous mass-spawning events on the

Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system, composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...

and in Japanese and Indonesian waters. Some species undergo fragmentation, a form of

asexual reproduction Asexual reproduction is a type of reproduction that does not involve the fusion of gametes or change in the number of chromosomes. The offspring that arise by asexual reproduction from either unicellular or multicellular organisms inherit the f ...

, and this sometimes results in reefs composed of a single species.

References

{{Authority control Scleractinia Cnidarian families Taxa named by Addison Emery Verrill